4 years ago...

Today, September 22, was the 4 year anniversary of me entering the MTC to serve my mission in Arizona. I can't believe it's been 4 years since mom and dad dropped me off and I was the first missionary to leave the orientation room, only to get a second hepatitis shot I hadn't done yet, and then on to the beginning of a 2 year journey. It was by far the scariest happy moment of my life! And the day after, September 23, still to this day remains the longest day of my life. YOU WANT ME TO GET UP AT 6:30 a.m. EVERY DAY FOR TWO YEARS??? Well I did it! And can't believe I've been home now for an additional 2 years. I sure miss it a lot sometimes and all the great people I was fortunate to meet. But life goes on...

Close Encounter Issues

We watched Close Encounters of the Third Kind this rainy morning. No doubt its one of the greatest and the filmmaking is incredible (and music...the five note communication tool the aliens use is one of my ringtones). But we had one major problem with the end: Why was there no alien exchange for the life of Richard Dreyfuss?? They came to our planet, screwed up peoples lives here, stole some people from the early 1900's, returned them dazed and confused, and then play/act nice?? No, it doesn't work like this. In exchange for choosing Richard Dreyfuss (of whom lost his family due to his obsession in finding the mountain he made a model out of with mashed potatoes, chicken wire, and dirt), they should have voluntarily left an alien baby or adult for us to examine and study. Eye for an eye! Tooth for a tooth! Alien for a human!

We'll take the one on the far right looking lost. He's even questioning: "Is this really fair? Maybe I should stay..."

I'm Ba-ack!

After a long absence from the blogging phenomenon, I am back. Yes it is true. A new semester and with it a new blog. The 7 week break came and is now gone with the wind.  It was a blast living in L.A. with my friends and their family.  Being back in Rexburg is great too.  This semester will be fun and have brand new challenges...such as getting stung by a bee today for the first time in my life...after tragically losing a tennis match to my friend Jon.  He stung me on the shin and it hurt for a while.  It's all good now though.  It wasn't as bad as I'd expect, and it's good to know I'm not allergic, as I have wondered this my entire life...wondering if a bee sting would be the way I go...

This semester I am taking great classes.  My itinerary includes: Criminology, Media Management, Media Law and Ethics, Custom Images, and of course, Advertising Concepts. Criminology is very interesting and intense.  Media Management is hilarious as we study commercials, skits, youtube videos, and video podcasts and analyze them.  Media Law and Ethics will be the toughy this semester because, as it says in its title, studies law. Custom Images is with Sister Esplin, of whose it is my 4th class taking from her because, in my eyes, she is the best teacher this school has and is perfect at all she does in terms of visual design. Advertising Concepts is my favorite, duh, and the teacher is gonna be great as we expand on our advertising capabilities and designs.  

I'm still living in the Ridge 708 and probably will stay here until I graduate.  I'm in room number one, which nobody can understand why I love so much.  But if you've been to our apartment, you will understand that the hallway is very long and dark.  I like being in the front and just getting there already.  Matt and Mike are still my roomates as well as second timer Ryan, from Hollister.  Newcomers to the apt include Brock from Ohio, and Scott Hadley from somewhere in Utah.  We're all returned missionaries from Argentina, Brazil, W. Virginia, Long Beach and ARIZONA BABY!! 

Other activities thus far this semester have been getting back to exercising and playing tennis.  My friend, Eric Vail, who was my first zone leader in AZ, and I play almost every day.  We're on the same level of talent as tennis goes so it is fun.  Life is great at the moment with no complaints (other than that stupid bee sting!).  It's good to be back to the blog. 

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Me cooking

Our living room, complete with Mike

CA and Family Reunion

Well for the past month I've been living in Los Angeles at Matt and Mike's house. It's been fun. They went on a trip with their entire family about two weeks ago on the Disney Cruise. I housesit and worked and continue to work for their grandma doing stuff. While they were gone I managed to 1) get lost for an hour and a half finding a movie theater a mile from their house 2) survive a 5.8 earthquake that caused a glass to fall and the couch to shift and 3) get a really bad sunburn. Halfway through that week I went home to Salinas for my own family reunion for four days. We went on a cool train ride, played by a river, played games, "relaxed", and took pictures to name a few. It was great to see everyone cuz it will be a while as my sister and her fam moved to New York and my brother and his fam are moving to Tennessee eventually soon. Below are some pictures. Meanwhile I'm back in Los Angeles working and having fun. It's been a relaxing summer of beach playing and olympic watching. I'm still in awe at the Mens Relay American Team beating France by .7 seconds. Michael Phelps is crazy! I also love the controversy on whether or not the Chinese girls gymnastics team members are really sixteen years old. Oh well...

My siblings and siblings in law playing games to the wee hours of the night...

My Nephew Oliver...
My brother Jamie, Dad, and I were all leaning on the table the same way on accident...5 of my nieces and Nana...

Holla!

First off I am alive. Finals week is almost over and that rocks! This really has been an awesome semester. Everything about it was a blast. Socially, mentally, spiritually, physically...except near the end...yikes...!, even academically/school surprisingly! I loved all my classes (except USA Heritage...) and the projects I have from them. My website is FINALLY completed and perfected in all its glory!! Check it out:

www.sinkingshipples.com

Also, I just added the entire project I just completed for my advertising class to my website. We had to create, as a group of 4, a campaign promoting Service Activities on campus. There were five groups in the class and each group presented their campaign to the Service Activities director. It was so awesome to see every groups perspective and advertising ideas. If they were to just take a little from each group, Service Activities would have the ULTIMATE CAMPAIGN! I was the creative director of my group and you can see the ads that I created on my website by clicking: Advertising, Ad Campaign, View Projects, and then Click on different ads (the walk-a-longs are my favorite). We also presented our Websites in my Visual Media class today. Mine was received well and I like it a lot. I've put a lot of projects up and plan to put more when time allows. Here are some others from my class that you might enjoy looking at that I like a lot:

www.makeshiftads.com
www.paigeconley.com
www.westpianostudio.com
www.kaenie.com (watch her podcasts)
www.harperbeyond.com

On Saturday afternoon I am leaving for L.A. to go live with Matt and Mike and work for their family. I'm gonna be their personal family slave and butler and do obscene amounts of housework for pay. Totally kidding, but I will be working for their family business...not sure exactly what yet. We will see!

Digital Advertisement

For my advertising class we had to design, in partners, an ad as if it were to appear on the internet, but we had to do it in a sequence of four.  It could either be four strips, four circles, four squares, etc..!..  Me and my partner Tiffany (or...My partner Tiffany and I...(which one mom?) haha)), of whom we make a great team, created this ad for the olympics.  We put athletes inside of Tetris pieces and had Tetris be a proud sponsor.  We like it.

Big Judds!

So for my birthday I went to Big Judds. It is famous for its one pound burger that if you eat you get your picture up on the wall. Thank you Mamie and Monkey for getting it for me! At first I wasn't planning on eating it...but the pressure built. My friends became vicious creatures that would demand nothing but that I ate it. I sat there for about an hour total trying to get it down. After a fourth of it I was done but kept going. I kept being told that it was all in my head but I could seriously feel it at the top of my throat. I even gagged a few times. Anyway, enough of that. Here are some pictures. There are some pretty bad ones of me eating it later on that I don't have yet. But here you can see most of my friends who came and the size of the beast! Thanks again everyone for a fun birthday!

Friends!

If I only knew...